You Learn Something Everyday
by Ayanfe
Summary: Magnus wants to celebrate Valentine's Day - even if it is a stupid mundane holiday.


**Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. Coming up with a title for this was harder than my anatomy final.**

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Magnus took a step back to scrutinize his work.

For a moment, he considered adding flowers, but then he remembered Alec's allergies. He was sure there were allergy-friendly flowers out there somewhere, but better safe than sorry. He didn't want anything to ruin his surprise.

It was Valentine's Day.

Contrary to popular belief, Magnus wasn't actually that big a fan the holiday. It was over-commercialized, overdone, and could be downright tacky. But he also knew that he was Alec's first boyfriend, his first real relationship. It wasn't hard to make the leap and conclude that Alec had never celebrated Valentine's Day before, so Magnus took it upon himself to make this the best Valentine's Day his boyfriend had ever had.

And Magnus was surprised to find that he was excited for it. It had been a long time since he'd had anyone he wanted to celebrate things like anniversaries and holidays with. Alec made him want to do stupid things, like buy him flowers and chocolate and surprise him with romantic dinners at home and invent new words just so he could adequately explain how much he _loved_ him, because he did, he loved Alec so much that he was disgusted with how sappy he had become.

He'd been planning to recruit Isabelle, and maybe Jace, to distract Alec for an hour or two so he could get everything set up, but that had proved unnecessary. A rogue werewolf had come into town and was attacking young Downworlders; Alec had received a call from his _parabatai_ early that morning and had been gone all day hunting.

Magnus had just put the finishing touches on his surprise when Alec texted him. _Werewolf detained, heading home now. Need anything?_ Magnus texted back a negative and waited.

Alec walked in the door, took one look at Magnus's set up, and took on a horrified expression that made Magnus feel offended.

"What?" He asked. "You don't like it?" He tried to sound teasing, even if he was genuinely disappointed. He had put effort into this, put effort into making it something Alec would like. He kept it simple, ignored that voice in his head that told him to add glitter and flashing lights and Portals to Paris or to rent out entire restaurants.

Instead, he'd gone with a small table adorned with a plain white cloth and dinner for two. The lighting in the apartment was dim, because Magnus couldn't help but indulge a couple of his romantic tendencies. His present for Alec was neatly wrapped in black and white paper and tied with red ribbon.

It was exactly the type of thing Alec liked - private and understated.

Alec immediately rearranged his features into a more pleasant, if slightly strained, expression. His eyes looked a little panicked. "No! No, I love it," he reassured Magnus. "Just...Did I forget something? I know it's not your birthday or our anniversary, and it's definitely not _my_ birthday, but fuck - I'm so sorry for whatever it is I forget, I-"

Magnus laughed. "Alexander, relax," he said, cutting off his rambling boyfriend. "Take a deep breath. It's February. Today's a holiday. Any of that ringing a bell?"

Alec looked a hell of a lot calmer, albeit still confused. "Um, no, not really. Is it Mardi Gras? What date is it?"

Magnus rolled his eyes, unwilling to admit even to himself that he was slightly charmed by Alexander's complete lack of awareness of _what day it was_. He supposed that his erratic sleep schedule might have something to do with that. Hunting demons at nights and training during the day didn't really allow for a lot of downtime.

"No," he said patiently. "It's not Mardi Gras. It's the fourteenth. Valentine's Day."

Alec's eyes widened. "Downworlders have a day to celebrate _Valentine?"_ He sounded appalled.

"No! Like Saint Valentine, it's a day for - wait, are you telling me that Nephilim don't celebrate Valentine's Day?"

"Why would we? He was evil!"

"Not Valentine Morgenstern!" Magnus groaned. This was so much worse than anything he prepared for. "First of all, it's not a Downworlder thing, it's a mundane thing. Secondly, it has nothing to do with the Valentine you're thinking of. It's a holiday that, well, it used to mean something different, but now it's basically an excuse for couples to be gooey and romantic and make single people feel bad."

Alec still looked suspicious, one hand on his weapons belt like the dead Shadowhunter in mention was going to leap out and attack him.

Magnus sighed. "Look, you can Google it if you want."

Alec visibly relaxed. "No, it's fine. I trust you...Sorry for, um, I'm not really sure. Accusing you of celebrating a psychotic murderer?"

Magnus shrugged, smiling at the ridiculousness of it all. "No harm done. Now - should we do dinner or presents first?"

Alec deflated. "I didn't get you anything."

"That's okay. Open your gift."

"But I-"

Magnus heaved another sigh. "Alexander, it's just a holiday. One I wanted to celebrate with you, yes, but not because of the presents. I like having excuses to do stuff like this. Also, I figured if Valentine's Day sex was half as awesome as anniversary sex, it would be worth it."

Alec blushed.

"You wanna know my theory as to why Nephilim don't celebrate Valentine's Day or any similar holiday?"

"You only found out two minutes ago, and you already have a theory?" Alec seemed amused.

"Of course I do."

Alec's lips twitched like he wanted to laugh. "Please, enlighten me."

Magnus took Alec's hand and let him over to the couch to sit. "You know my opinion on Nephilim. A lot of them are arrogant and condescending and entitled and-"

"Insulting my entire race is a _great_ way to start this conversation."

Magnus shot him a look, then got to the point. "But one thing I can't deny is that when Shadowhunters choose to love someone, they love without reservation. You give all that you have to the people that you love, Alexander, I've seen it. Not just with me, but with Isabelle and Jace too. Maybe I doubted your feelings for me at first, when I didn't know you like I do now, but there isn't a day that goes by where I don't know how lucky I am to have you. You show me that you love me every day, whether it's by feeding Chairman Meow or surprising me with breakfast in bed. And that is infinitely more meaningful than some stupid mundane holiday."

Alec kissed him. Magnus was a little taken aback, but it wasn't like he was going to object.

"I love you," Alec told him, looking him in the eyes. "I do, and I know you said that Valentine's Day doesn't really matter, but I appreciate that you did this for me."

Magnus grinned. "Good. Because I love you too, and I put a lot of effort into this."

Alec kissed him once more for good measure, then asked, "So dinner? I'm starving."

"Presents first!" Alec looked like he was going protest, so Magnus cut him off before he could start. "Don't give me that look, you give me random presents all the time, it's my turn." Magnus snapped his fingers, and the gift that was on the table appeared in Alec's lap.

Alec opened it the same way he did all presents; he untied the ribbon with a couple of quick, efficient moves, then tore the wrapping carefully and set it aside - as if he wasn't going to throw it in the garbage.

"What's this?" He held up the inch-thick stack of paper.

This was Magnus's favorite part. He'd put a lot of thought into it. "It's a contract. It states that you have the right to an opinion when I redecorate and that I will give you notice before changing the entire apartment. There's even a clause in there that gives you three veto opportunities per redecoration."

Alec laughed so hard he fell off the couch.

(And Valentine's Day sex turned out to be even better than anniversary sex.)

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 **Credit to like twenty different posts on Tumblr about the Valentine/Valentine's Day thing that inspired this one-shot.**

 **Please leave a review telling me your thoughts! I read them all, and I love getting them. Or leave prompts, it can be one word or one paragraph, idc.**


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